In the field of wearing apparel, several devices have been utilized to enhance the wearer's appearance. Some appearance-enhancing devices have relied on the use of force to squeeze and shape body areas. These devices include corsets and girdles to shrink body areas. Other areas of the body have been given an enlarged appearance through the use of padding.
The use of colors or shades has been proven to be of great value in modifying a person's appearance. For example, horizontal stripes tend to make a person appear wider while vertical stripes tend to give the appearance of thinness.
The use of shading has been used to give an optical illusion by taking advantage of the eye's tendency to be drawn to lighter areas and ignore darker areas and thus the lighter areas appear larger and the darker areas appear smaller. U.S. Pat. No. 1,817,053 to Zerk uses shading to alter the appearance of a person's legs in the knee or ankle region by shading those areas darker, thereby making them appear smaller. In each embodiment of Zerk, the shaded area extends circumferentially around the leg.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,609 of Freedman discloses the use of gradations in shading. Each gradation circumscribes a central shaded portion. When it is desired to make a portion of a leg appear smaller, the central area is a higher intensity of a certain hue.
The invention herebelow described makes use of appearance enhancing color differences and applies them to create a new type of garment which promotes an improved appearance of the wearer through the formation of apparent marginal edges on the garment itself.